David Swanson: 43,000 Reasons Not To Attack Iran

43,000 Reasons Not To Attack Iran

By
David SwansonRemarks in front of White House, May 17,
2006.

Some weeks back, Cindy Sheehan asked me to
start a petition opposing an attack on Iran. We posted it at
www.dontattackiran.org

It's wonderful
that so many people are here as we deliver the petition to
the White House. It would be nice if President Bush were
here, but I understand he's run for the border in search of
his lost 30 percent approval rating.

The other people who
should be here, but who are here in spirit, are the 43,000
people who signed the petition on the website. We've brought
with us to deliver to the men and women guarding our
occupied but temporarily abandoned house all 43,000 names.
These stacks and stacks of names are printed double-sided
and include people's cities and states, so that our
President can be sure he's listening in on the right
people's phone calls.

Also included, with about half of
the names on the petition, are comments that people posted
on the website. Almost all of them, Mr. President, are
polite comments that need not have scared you way. Reading
through thousands of them, I'm struck by the insight and the
eloquence of the various points of view you so routinely
ignore.

While the comments are for the most part not rude,
many of them are angry, and even those that are not angry
are opposed to your policies, Mr. President. In fact, a lot
of them ask you to resign or promise that you will be
impeached. I'm wearing a shirt that reads "Impeach Bush and
Cheney" not because I'm angry with you, not because I hate
you, and certainly not because I support the last president
who was impeached or his corrupt warmongering wife. Mr.
President, I want you impeached so that we can have peace in
the world and a democracy in America, so that you will stop
killing Iraqis and not begin killing Iranians.

Mr.
President, this is not just about the people you've killed.
It's also about the people you could have saved with the
same money and effort. Every dime of the hundreds of
billions of dollars you've spent killing people could have
been spent saving people, around the world, along the Gulf
Coast, and in this city that you so unjustly occupy.

For
far far less than you've already spent, we could have a
Department of Peace. We could invest in diplomacy and
foreign aid. We could create single-payer healthcare, free
college, and free preschool, and restore a decent minimum
wage and the right to organize a union – things that cost
our public treasury nothing but the plutocrats who tell you
what to do quite a lot.

Let me read you the words of our
petition:

Dear President Bush and Vice President
Cheney,

We write to you from all over the United States
and all over the world to urge you to obey both
international and U.S. law, which forbid aggressive attacks
on other nations. We oppose your proposal to attack Iran.
Iran does not possess nuclear weapons, just as Iraq did not
possess nuclear weapons. If Iran had such weapons, that
would not justify the use of force, any more than any other
nation would be justified in launching a war against the
world's greatest possesor of nuclear arms, the United
States. The most effective way to prevent Iran from
developing nuclear weapons would be to closely monitor its
nuclear energy program, and to improve diplomatic relations
-- two tasks made much more difficult by threatening to bomb
Iranian territory. We urge you to lead the way to peace, not
war, and to begin by making clear that you will not commit
the highest international crime by aggressively attacking
Iran.

Mr. President, 43,000 people have signed that, and
we will continue collecting signatures. Here are a few of
the shorter comments that people added at the
bottom:

David Battistoli of San Diego, CA: Haven't you
learned your lessons from Iraq? Pre-emptive wars are wrong.

Deborah Wayne of Jesup, GA: No military strikes without a
vote from all of the registered voters in the U.S.

Joel
Wendland of Mansfield, OH: Please do not attack Iran as we
the American people want PEACE not WAR.

Peter Cobb of
Scottsdale, AZ: ONCE was enough!

Phyllis Frazell of
Detroit Lakes, MN: NO MORE WAR. Impeach the criminals
NOW

James Perry of Studio City, CA: George Bush - YOU MAKE
GOD CRY!

Stan Adams of West Palm Beach, FL: Our troops are
not your toys to throw around when you want to look tough.
Please do not start another war that you cannot win.

Amy
Branham of Ann Arbor, MI: Nuking Iran is unacceptable,
subhuman, insane, and should happen under no circumstances
whatsoever.

Ted Lewis of Yelm, WA: Do not start any more
wars in the name of the American People; we have not given
you the right and permission to do so!!!!

Those comments,
Mr. President, are from the first three pages of the nearly
7,000 pages it took to print them all out. Do you think
these people might be trying to tell you something?

There
are also quite a number of organizations behind this effort,
many of them represented here today. They all oppose your
proposal to attack Iran:

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